Ignoring the obvious for a moment, I thought the gowns and coats were gorgeous. Beautiful fabrics. And I’m sure some of those trains and sleeves have gorgeous flow when gravity’s allowed to act on them.

Having only seen it online in photos, I had no idea what was going on with all that metal until I read Sarah Mower’s review. I thought the models were being pulleyed over the runway or something.

This kind of self-parody in fashion has itself become parodic. It makes me appreciate this year’s Marc Jacobs-type collections and shows even more because they’re just about the clothes…and the women/men who wear them. Now THERE’s a concept!

That was just wrong. There’s enough speculation about how models are treated by designers and crews when all that they’re expected to do is walk down the runway normally.

It was just cruel in my opinion. I don’t understand how they were possibly expected to walk the runway shouldering those contraptions, and it’s a wonder that each managed to. I couldn’t even really get a feel for the clothes because I was just so shocked.

Whatever statement the two were trying to make was far overshadowed by the outrageousness of the concept.

poor emmina is on the verge of tears. Sarah Mower said it best in Style.com–had V & R come out in the same contraptions, then it would have made sense. Who can look at the clothes when the models are under such extreme conditions?

hmmm. not sure how i feel about victor & rolfe. i thought it was interesting how they incorporated the lighting fixtures into the clothing, creating some intriguing shapes/structures. i just don’t think the concept is that stimulating…life in the spotlight, pinned clothing, object/doll..i keep asking, “how is this progressive and new?” maybe it’s just too fancy for me and i don’t get it.

The clothes were quite pretty. I love the folksy Dutch textile on some of the dresses and skirts. I don’t know what the name of that flower pattern is, but its cute. As for the rigging….well it was interesting as a statement but the models looked ill at ease.

I would also like to hear what the others think about this collection!To me, it was very… Unique? No. It was just extremly weird. Cannot even imagine anybody wearing something like that! Bu still cloethes were not bad, even liked some, on the other hand this whole electronic thing makes me really, really mad.I think my boss, who is pretty same-sensed about dressing with me, would say “pathetic but it got some personality”.This is really, really weird.

Oh I love Viktor & Rolf. They are magnetic creators. With their shows in nuances … Last year with Rufus Wainwright it was … !!!Here their imagination is crazzzzy ! photographs get the good light ?!Don’t look under the dress !!! it’s yet done !!!

It’s been said that no one should call himself an artist unless he ‘has something to say.’ Viktor&Rolf always have something to say. With waify models struggling to hold up the weight of lights (and cameras), the latest show suggests that each of us is a spectacle, parading through life as though in a fashion show. Loved it!http://www.fashionminute.blogspot.com

Oh, my. I think high-concept got a little too high here. Terribly distracting, which is a shame because some of the clothes are wonderful. Also a little condescending, I thought — do they think we can’t possibly get their point unless they beat us over the head with it? Perhaps V&R should start an offshoot of their company just for designing stage spectacles and performances pieces. Maybe then they’d get all this… stuff out of their systems and when it came time to do a fashion show, they could just show us the great clothes they’re so very capable of making.

The shoulder pleating was great I thought but my mind was stuck on the lighting fixtures, they truly took over the show. With some of the fabrics stretched the way they were, it was hard to see what silhouttes were created by their outfits, so it’s hard to fully judge the clothes.

Hopefully they’ll have the clothes by themselves on the website and then we’ll be able to fully access it.

Just went to style.com and checked this out. I think it’s brilliant in concept if you forget about the clothes. I take it as a great statement on how the vast majority of people these days are obsessed with glorifying or dramatizing their own lives – as if every move they make or step they take is a scene in a grand Hollywood spectacle. Look at the trouble some people take with blogs or with YouTube to record and analyse and polish everything the minutiae of their every day lives. Having spotlights strapped to these girls as they walk is a great visual to reflect that idea.

The concept was brilliant (even though the clothes were average). However, it doesn’t justify their irresponsability. On the other hand, it’s clear that if it wasn’t for those things, nobody would be talking about the clothes except for the Dutch themselves.

For those of them who didn`t quite got it. Look in the direction of “the Menkes” at IHT. Really the only fair words on the collection i read. Miss Mower (terriffic broad), god, i don`t know what hit her. I mean she was able to figure out the abstraction of the Margiela show, but not this fun and silly little pun. Ãt was fun and a chic clin d`Ã¦il, not a turning point for fashion but, no, I`m positive Hye, Julia and all those other broads survived the show in good health.

I have read all the comments and viewed the show a couple times and it seems to come down to this: they want to have a dialogue with the viewers.

Now, the success of this dialogue varies greatly from collection to collection and viewer to viewer but it has people talking. For a long time, fashion was relegated to the land of superfluous craft but it is every bit as serious and meaningful as any work in the MOMA, Louvre or other alternative exhibition space. I love shows that make you think and are entertaining and have you leave thinking, good AND bad things. (BOY do I wish I was there in person but alas!)

The amazing clothes were a little spoiled by those spotlights and clogs. But those poor models! It looked like they had to wear things you see in an art gallery but to STILL look like perfect little doll.

you’re all making too much of a fuss. these girls are paid heavily for these shows, surely they didn’t mind walking with the rigs attached to them that much. im more worried about the models falling over in high heels the last couple of seasons (stam at chloe, lara stone at lagerfeld and kamilla at westwood). killer heels in a whole different light!

i thought the idea worked well… typical V&R, very strange. The clothes were beautiful if not a bit too traditional, but loved how the clothes were draped and hung on the rigging around the models.

Oh Puhlease V&R we’ve been wearing light rigging on our heads and shoulders around here for like 8 weeks, that movement is SO over. Any-one who is in the know is now doing cat food tins as armbands.Its totally more expressive of the clothing wearer as object.

Please for, God’s sake, let’s stop feeling sorry for the models. Yes the poor waifish things had to walk around with these ridicuouls contraptions strapped to them. Maybe they actually EARNED their inflated paychecks at this show.

Also, it was surprising to see any sort of expression on their sunken faces, even if it was discomfort. Maybe they will remember their walk in this show, and smile more in future ones. Brava girls, for not falling over though. That’s really working it.

The clothes, I felt, were almost underwhelming when lit the way they were, but then again the simplicity of the clothes may have been part of the point. I absolutely loved the burgundy coat with flower motif crystals on it though. I don’t think I would have noticed the details on that coat- the pleating on torso, the cut of the sleeve -as carefully, if it hadn’t been lit the way it was.

I didn’t even see the clothes – I just saw the rigging. A problem, doncha think? (although I can go back and look)(But really, should I?)

There are SO MANY THINGS they could have done to get the same effect without being so cruel to the models. Wires, rollers, trolleys of all sorts. If they had just given the models more comfortable shoes(!) I might want to forgive them.

The light itself looked amazing, the way it fell on the models. But that was just mean.

don’t look at those robotic lighting fixtures, the clothes are quite pretty and it’s just viktor & rolf style. most of the designers can’t survive without gimmicks nowadays, we should keep expecting more and more.

The whole concept of the light and music is not at ALL new, the light idea is done by Martin Margiela 10 years ago, the music as well.

The only thing V&R did different was that is was a huge burden and painfull for the girls, even when they are paid for it, knowing V&R are Dutch, the models probably dont get paid that well.

They came up with the light, not so new, idea because the clothing was to boring. It feels that they had to cover up something: Maybe the fact that they are great stage designers but not as good in fashion design , at least not as good as they pretend.

It all had a huge potential of Â¨Project Runway

Sarah Mower gave the perfect reaction towards what we saw in real, and Mme Suzy menkes was way to kind.

If they had come out with wooden shoes with heels themselves than my reaction would have been less negatif, but they just looked so full of themselves, which actually to me was the most painfull moment of the whole show.

after sitting thru the snooze we called NYC Fashion week, i was thrilled to see a bit of theater. Remember when fashion shows were shows? V&R do and i’m thankful for it.I always make a point of getting to their show because there are only so many times I can sit for thru one more parade of the same girls in variations on the same very sellable dresses.

And all this whining about the models? they are professional, they have the option to turn down a job, and since the death of the super model, they are as replacable as toilet paper. So yes, it probably was difficult to walk in those lights but it was also an option they had. Whoever designed those contraptions obviously DESIGNED them because not a single girl fell down. Fashion shows should be SHOWS and theater requires a bit of acting. None of the Thom Browne boys cried at how much pain those clothes caused, so why should we cry for these girls.

Let’s be honest! It was not the most comfortable outfit ever to be worn. Hey, am I listening someone whispering Galliano’s name? No way. This show was way fresher than his. Really loved the garments for Magdalena Frackowiak, Anna Maryia Urazhevskaya, Raquel Zimmermann. Classy!

I am rarely disappointed by Viktor & Rolf, and this presentation was certainly not one of those occassions. Surely the concept was not completely original, but it was done very well and rife with social commentary.

It seems to me that anyone clamoring for the ethical treatment of models has missed the proverbial train. Take the time to look at the backstage photographs. I would hazard a guess that the pained looks were a careful choreography on the part of V&R. To assume that any theatrical detail would be left unconsidered is a discredit to the designers.

This is high-concept fashion done impeccably. While the idea of fashion as consumerist spectacle has been done before, i don’t think it has been done this simply.

It’s easy to highlight that clothes are in a spotlight, and that fashion turns its wearer into a theatrical performer. Here, though, the clothes are intertwined with the framework of the spotlights, such that they necessitate the spotlight!

This is all meta-textual, if we can project that textile here is text. The simple constructed folksiness of the clothing merely emphasized the point.

They get paid for it you know, they wanted to do it if they didn’t want to do it, they could of said no and walk away.The one that were on the catwalk were on the catwalk because they wanted it, not because they where forced.Stop to nag about how horrible it is for girls who -once again- get payed for it and who like to do it, and talk fashion.

And about the shoes (the wooden shoes called ‘klompen’ in the Netherlands) people in Holland have walked in those shoes for years and years, so why is it so brutal when models have to walk on it? they just had to walk over a catwalk, and believe me that’s not very hard!

the backstage pictures are taken BEFORE any show dear anonyme…The girls did not even walked one centimeter in the clogs.. but that is not the problem .The real thing is that the clothes are sooo boring

if you want fashion please take a close look at Hussein Chalayan or maison martin margiela

Hussein Chalayans show was what we should expect from fashion , advantgarde and fashion together with technology we are going fastforward so forgt melancholy of folklore..

By the way balenciaga was a very good example aswell where the world should go, inteligent and with respect, Bravo Nicolas, Hussein and Martin.

Dries van Noten was not bad either.. so lets not talk anymore about V & R.. I wont anyhow..

I LOVED this show. Loved the concept; loved the textiles, loved the designs. As for the assertion that the models were in pain — look at the backstage photos from the show on style.com. They look fine! Oh, and as a skinny woman myself (genetics and lack of soda?) I’m seriously bored with peoples’ assumptions that all skinny women are starving, sickly or frail. Stop with all the faux pity, “somebody feed her a sandwich” condescension (that goes double for you, Sarah Mower), pass me the snow shovel and gimme a freakin’ break.

well, first of all, the light fixtures don’t look that bad, but that aside, the clothes are just SUCH an improvement over the Spring collection! I’ve only seen photos, of course, but I thought they looked great. And, judging by the way the models looked in the Spring collection, it’s about time V&R got selfconscious about spectacle.

I don’t get it. So what if their point with the whole neck thing was to comment on the narcissism society today – what does it have to do with their clothes?

They didn’t DESIGN any item of clothing that had anything to do with that comment. They just chucked on a fancy contraption and expected people to be impressed by their “cleverness”and “perspicuity” – which isn’t exactly a new insight; anyone who reads the newspapers knows the concept of a self-obsessed Internet generation.

It wasn’t even extraordinary, or even good fashion – it didn’t even make me want to shop.

Not an ounce of fun, a display of shallow intelligence. A sheer waste of time and energy.

Art should be left to an artist–these contraptions are as technologically clumsy as they are intellectually l-i-t-e. When you have nothing to say with your clothes, I suppose this is the best you can expect. Yawn.

I find it hard to ignore the obvious (e.g., teenage girls are being made to wear lighting rigs), regardless of the quality/design of the clothes. In fact, it kind of enrages and disappoints me that people are able to put their basic humanity aside in order to dissect the fashion on display given the way it was presented. Hello, these are real live people strapped into these God-knows-how-heavy contraptions!

Whatever, folks. What I find so infuriating about the brutal reviews of the VR show is that people are forgetting the obvious: for every catwalk show that models do, it still aint no cakewalk. Strutting down the runway in 5 inch heels, on runways made of grass, fur, strewn with slippery rose petals or astroturf is the daily, normative, brutal routine. I’ve seen enough models fall (even 3 times in a show) to know better than to punish Viktor & Rolf for making a larger statement on the self-absorption involved in people’s daily runway shows. So they sent their models down the runway wearing heeled clogs and rigged with lights. Big deal. No one freaks out if models at the Gucci show is teetering out in unwearable, painful high heels. A touch too hypocritical, all this talk of sadism and brutality at the VR show.

It's the models' job to walk the catwalk wearing whatever the designer wishes them to wear. If they didn't want to wear one of V&R's innovative garments they didn't have to. Recently I went to the V&R exhibition at the Barbican London and it was fantastic; they are true artists.